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it’s the silent devotion. it’s the crumbling into degeneracy against your oath, it’s the letting go of all the rules and limitations you take so seriously. it’s about the hot metal and sweat collecting in the seams of heavy armor, it’s the lack of face and skin and voice. inhuman beast, a shield and a blade and a loyal servant but oh so human once broken past that. oh and the cock and balls i guess.

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Knight and midsummer morning Dare to love, dream, and endure despite everything - happy pride and midsummer

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just found out in medieval france, having a lion on your coat of arms was so prevalent that there was literally a colloquial proverb to clown on knights for being basic and not having a real coat of arms. the hate game was so strong back then. imagine medieval hate anons

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monks are a sort of animal you have to take care of. the monastery is a little terrarium. the diet consists of bread, porridge, woodchips from crosses, and wine. being allowed to pet the tonsure is a symbol of trust

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sexy knights. sexy wounded knights. sexy wounded weary knights. sexy wounded weary knights in the rain. sexy wounded weary knights in the rain pledging their loyalty to you.

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Pilgrimage (2017)

gifset for @wagemama-ningyo

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My fics were plagiarized! A timeline and update

Hello Pilgrimage folks and non-Pilgrimage folks,

It's been less than week since I learned that someone plagiarized my Pilgrimage fanfics and published them as their own, but that's an eternity in Internet time and quite a lot has happened since Sunday, so I figured I should post an update of some sort.

How did you learn about this in the first place?

On Sunday, a very kind reader commented on my fic An Invitation to Happiness asking if I'd published it as an original novel, because, if not, an ebook they were reading, The Beauty and His Beast by Layla Moran, was extremely similar. I went to the ebook's Goodreads page, read the summary, and thought, "Well, there are similarities, but--" and then I scrolled down to look at the reviews and saw that people were describing exact scenes from my fic.

I went to Layla Moran's author page on Goodreads and immediately recognized two more titles, The Rancher's Mail-Order Husband and The Warrior and the Monk, as my two other multi-chapter Pilgrimage fics, Bluebells and Daylillies and Wild Roses Running Rampant, and how rich the earth, how bright the stars. My heart dropped--those three ebooks were some of her most recent "works" and they'd been published over the course of the last few months. The Warrior and the Monk was the first of mine she took; its publication date was listed as December 1, 2024.

What did you do next?

I panicked, and proceeded to tell my friends and fellow Pilgrimage fans what I'd found, and, while I floundered, they all immediately rallied around me. We started reporting the plagiarized works and stating that they were plagiarized in reviews. Someone found Layla Moran's Reddit username and posts that she made on the subreddit MM_RomanceBooks, which prompted me to start writing my own post with the thought that, whether or not we could get the ebooks removed, I could at least show readers in the community that her works were plagiarized so the word would get out and others would be dissuaded from buying them.

How did that work out?

Great, eventually. As stated in the eventual Reddit post, I don't have much social media at all. I write fic, I post it on AO3, and I'm here on Tumblr, mostly reblogging stuff but occasionally letting Pilgrimage fans know when I've posted another Pilgrimage fic. I tried to make a Reddit account and kept getting error messages, which only made me more frustrated and stressed. I was really certain that if I could just show a wider audience these example comparisons of Layla Moran's "books" to my fics, then things would be okay! My friend @pilgrimagesource, who had by that time already made a Tumblr post about the situation, also made a Reddit account so that she could share the post I'd written on my behalf.

Except that new Reddit users need a certain amount of karma before they can start creating posts of their own! More frustration and stress ensued! Pilgrimagesource proceeded to comment on any Layla Moran-related topic she could find and promptly got her comments deleted as spam because, well. It was the definition of spamming. But, the mods were extremely kind and had looked at the evidence and allowed her to finally make the post.

What happened next?

It gained a lot of traction very, very fast, and while I had been focused on my own works, people quickly realized that Layla Moran also published works under the name Rey Luca, and that nearly all of the ebooks from Layla Moran/Rey Luca were plagiarized from other fanfic authors from a wide variety of fandoms.

Other Pilgrimage folks informed their writing and fandom communities to spread the word. Another friend of mine created a spreadsheet to keep track of the ebooks, their corresponding fics and their real authors and fandoms, and whether or not the ebooks had been removed or not. The situation was extremely shitty, but I can honestly say I found it very heart-warming to see everyone working together to make sure that the real authors were identified and informed as well as leaving reviews and submitting reports.

And?

And that was my entire Sunday, essentially. I went to bed exhausted. The next morning I took a walk with a friend before heading to work--because writing is currently a hobby for me, and I don't make any money from it, and I have a full-time job to pay the bills! However, just before my shift started, I saw that books were disappearing from Layla Moran's Amazon and Goodreads pages, that the Reddit and Tumblr post had gotten huge, and that more people had found out their works had been stolen and were just as shocked and disheartened as I was. But it'd only been one day! Progress was being made!

Alright, so what now?

Now it's Friday and--well. I'm not really sure. On my end, Audible still has the audiobook for The Warrior and the Monk up for preorder (and it's set to be released on July 1), but I know that Tantor Media, the publisher, does not seem to have it listed on their site anymore. The page for the audiobook is now blank, and searching for Layla Moran's name on the site brings up no results. Her author bio page can still be found with some extra digging, but The Warrior and the Monk is not listed. The ebooks were all self-published on Kindle Unlimited; I suspect because the audiobook involved an actual publisher and involved a contract of some sort, it will take longer for everything to get taken down across all websites. I will be keeping an eye on it, though.

Currently, there are still some books on Layla Moran's Amazon page, perhaps because they were printed instead of just ebooks? I'm unsure how that works. On the other hand, Rey Luca's Amazon page seems to have been taken down, but there are quite a few more books still listed on the Goodreads page, though most of the reviews now state that they are based on stolen works and list the Reddit or Tumblr post or link the original fic.

What are you going to do about your own fics?

Nothing.

All of my fics were and are written for my own enjoyment, and for the enjoyment of those who read them. In the past few years there's been a lot of discussion about AI scraping and locking fics to prevent them from being used to train AI, but, from what it seems here, that doesn't stop someone from joining AO3, copy-pasting an entire work into a document, using the find/replace tool, and then using AI to rearrange some of words or add a few more paragraphs and then publishing it and passing it off as their own.

So, that sucks, and will always be in the back of my mind now. But at the same time, I think the reason I found all this out, and what might have been a factor in how those three initial ebooks were pulled so quickly, is because my fics are posted publicly for anyone to read. The evidence was really obvious when the ebooks were compared with my fics.

A lot of people commented that, at the very least, this proves that my writing could get published. That was also a sort of silver lining because--I think like many fic writers--one day I would like to be a published author. However, if I ever get something published it will be an original work. I will never edit and republish any of my long-form fics as novels because they weren't written with that goal in mind.

I write fics because I love the source material so much that I want to play around with the characters and the themes and create alternate universes and--just have fun. And I like sharing that with others; if someone reads one of my fics and likes it and it makes their day a little better, then I'm happy. And that's why my fics will continue to be available for anyone to read for free!

I have updated my AO3 profile to basically say all this, with the addition that I allow translations and podfics so long as you as ask and send me a link when you're finished.

And I think that covers everything so far! Thanks for reading, as always!

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Hi there. I saw your work was plagiarized by Layla Moran - I am so sorry for this. I just found out that one of my works was plagiarized by her under the name Rey Luca. I just wanted to reach out and a) offer support and b) ask if you’ve taken any steps about this? I have reported the work to Amazon but I just want to get a feel for what steps you’ve taken if any. I feel kind of lost tbh. Thanks sm and again I’m so sorry this is happening to you <3

Hello, I'm very sorry for taking so long to answer this, I was taking a break from things for a few days and only got back today. Thank you messaging me, and I'm so sorry that your work was plagiarized as well!

I'm going to make a longer post just sort of with an update/explanation and timeline of events, but as of right now most of the stolen works have been removed from places they were being sold as well as on Goodreads. I submitted general reports to Amazon/Kindle Unlimited stating that the titles were plagiarized and the text was available publicly for free elsewhere and linked my fics (which are not locked) and also included the dates they were completed, which predated the plagiarized titles.

I know other people were also submitting reports and asking for refunds, but I think it was helpful to word it in a way that stated the titles were not exclusive and that they could be found elsewhere and people were unknowingly paying for text that was publicly available. As of yet, I have not had to file an actual copyright infringement form (but if that audiobook gets published, well...). I don't know if this was the best strategy, but it's what I did.

I hope this was helpful to you! <3

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I really appreciate the post. I just found out about the situation this morning and I've spent the last few hours collecting excerpts and submitting reports for plagiarism. My next step is to try and get those ebooks taken down for copyright infringement, though I'm unsure if that will work.

I'm sad and disheartened that someone would do this. I write my fanfics for fun and to share my enjoyment of the source material with people in the fandom. Pilgrimage's fandom is quite small since the movie is not well known; this is probably why this person decided to choose three of my long Diarmuid x The Mute/David fics to publish and make a profit from.

Please note that I will NEVER republish any of my fics as an original work. They're tied to the source material and my self-indulgent wishes for the characters and don't work as original novels. Some of the Goodreads reviews seem to have picked up on that, but it also seems as though AI or poor find/replace has led to inconsistencies. A few people wondering who "Diamuid" is in the The Rancher's Mail-Order Husband shows that they couldn't erase my own errors!

🚨 E-BOOK "AUTHOR" IS PLAGIARIZING PILGRIMAGE FICS 🚨

Buckle up, folks, this is gonna be a long one.

Our prolific author, @relicshamecircle (aka EnduringParadox on ao3) has been made aware of an e-book "author" named Layla Moran who has been blatantly plagiarizing her Diarmute fanfics and just changing the names and a few words around. This is absolutely unacceptable. I always like to think of this fandom as a safe haven and an accepting, kind community. But this is disgusting.

These are the three specific works listed on Layla's account that have been plagiarized from EnduringParadox:

This seems to be the work of someone within the fandom, because how else would she have found these fics and read them and decided to pass them as her own? So Layla Moran, if you follow me and you're reading this, you have made Pilgrimage fanfic authors, who are already so few and far between, feel unsafe to post without you getting your greedy hands on them and trying to take advantage of a small fandom for your own profit. Did you think you would never get caught? My advice to you would be to take down the works yourself before this has to get nasty.

To everyone else, I urge you to report and/or leave one-star reviews stating that they're plagiarized from fanfic. Links and proof below the cut:

The summary of The Beauty and His Beast:

Which is CLEARLY An Invitation to Happiness:

Ugh, Everild and Camdyn... what ugly names. But I digress. Here's the link to the GoodReads page if you feel so inclined to leave a one-star review and report.

An excerpt from An Invitation to Happiness, EnduringParadox:

"David hadn’t fought for glory or gold. At the time, he thought he’d stood for God—that the king’s cause, which he so readily made his own, was not only legitimate but justified both on earth and in the eyes of Heaven. More than five years later, carved into adulthood by the sword’s blade, his body a hardened knot of scarred skin, his throat ravaged by his own roars of rage and anguish, David knows better. That he had gone to war simply because he had been foolish. Because he’d been a young man but had still looked at war with a boy’s eyes—half a solemn duty, half a game. Something that would be done and done with satisfaction."

An excerpt from The Beauty and His Beast, Layla Moran:

"Everild Reed hadn't fought for glory or gold. At the time, he thought he'd stood for God--that the king's cause, which he eagerly made his own, was not only legitimate but justified both on earth and in the eyes of Heaven. More than five years later, carved into adulthood by the sword's blade and burdened with the weight of his choices, his body a hardened knot of muscle and scarred skin, Everild knows better now."

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The summary of The Rancher's Mail-Order Husband:

Which, obviously, is Bluebells and Daylillies and Wild Roses Running Rampant:

Come ON, even naming Diarmuid's character "Ciarán"???? (And misspelling it Ciarian in the summary??) Here's a link to the GoodReads page. You know what to do.

And THIS ONE she's making money off of. You can buy it for $2.99 on Amazon.

Here's a link to the Amazon page, please report.

An excerpt from Bluebells and Daylillies and Wild Roses Running Rampant, EnduringParadox:

"David had almost joined their company. He’d gone nearly the entire war without being shot and damned if near the end of it all someone hadn’t gotten him right in the leg. The surgeon had told him they needed to take the entire limb. David had grabbed his collar, pulled him close until they were nose-to-nose, and gritted out that he’d break every one of his fingers if he tried it. He kept the leg, earned a limp, and found later, when he was beset by memories and the scent of blood and gunpowder, dizzy, pulse racing, that he’d gotten what they called the soldier’s heart, too."

An excerpt from The Rancher's Mail-Order Husband, Layla Moran:

"Graham had come close to joining the dead himself, narrowing surviving a gunshot wound to the leg near the warn's end. The surgeon wanted to amputate, and Graham, fueled by desperation, had snarled at him through gritted teeth, threatening to break his fingers if he so much as tried. He kept the leg but earn a limp that followed him everywhere, along with something the doctors called 'soldier's heart'--a condition that left him shaking, sleepless, and burdened with memories of blood and gunpowder."

--

And, finally, a summary of The Warrior and The Monk:

Which is just Temu how rich the earth, how bright the stars:

Here's a link to the GoodReads. Rate, report.

An excerpt from how rich the earth, how bright the stars, EnduringParadox:

"One morning, strangers in longships stepped onto the shore. Their arrival was no surprise. Along the sea's coast they drifted, slow, languid, in their monstrously large and narrow vessels with their monstrously large, woven sails dyed in bright, garish colors, a beacon to all that saw them, telling them—as their longships loomed like a pack of wolves stalking their prey—that they were coming."

An excerpt from The Warrior and The Monk, Layla Moran:

"One early morning, strangers in longships silently stepped onto the shore, their presence casting a heavy weight upon the land. Their arrival had been anticipated for days, maybe longer, and was no surprise to those who dwelled in the monastery overlooking the coast. The ships had been visible for miles as they drifted slowly, languidly, along the sea's edge, cutting through the waves like beasts with a purpose. They moved in their long, narrow vessels, which seemed both too large and too lean, with sails woven from thick cloth and dyed in bright, garish colors that stood out against the pale sea and sky. The sails themselves were like beacons, drawing attention,"

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This is all so blatant and egregious. Shame on Layla. EnduringParadox is a kind and dedicated person writing all of these wonderful stories for our small fandom for FREE and Layla has taken advantage of that. We are small but we are mighty and protective of our own. Let's make Layla regret fucking with Pilgrimage.

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I forgot to post this earlier, but Jon talked about Tom on Jimmy Kimmel Live! He talked about them filming each other's audition tapes. A few highlights:

On Tom Holland: "Tom Holland is one of the greatest human beings that ever lived ... I cannot say enough good about this young man. I love him."

"He just had this belief, and when you get to know him, and you see how he shows up, there is a reason he is the movie star that he is."

(In response to Jimmy saying he's the best Spider-Man) "Ever. Ever, without a doubt."

On Pilgrimage: "We did a film about seven or eight years ago that was sort of like The Odyssey, it was a medieval sort of journey film, but it was made for about one billionth of the budget."

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how does a man without a voice confess his sins?

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wine drunkkk. lords and ladies I don’t think it counts against my vow of chastity if I fuck my squire like it’s not even a big deal

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If I was a knight would you let me swear oaths to you be honest

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heritage

Diarmute Week 2025 Day 7: Lazarus The relic is— "A rock," says David, frowning at the museum exhibit. Diarmuid corrects him. "It's the rock that killed St. Matthias." He taps at the information placard on the wall. 

The last day! Thanks for reading! :)

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Come Hither, Lover - Chapter 1 - Jekasper - Pilgrimage (2017) [Archive of Our Own]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63869551/chapters/163797031

My take for Diarmute week 2025!